The Dragon Thief
by iwishaninjawould
Summary: For the young prince, Natsu, every day was the same. Until she came along and broke through his boring routine. He's been waiting for a change like her for ages. But he could never be prepared for the changes that would come after. As threats to the kingdom emerge from inside and outside the castle walls, will Natsu be able to trust anyone? Medieval AU. Full summary inside.


The Dragon Thief, a Fairy Tail fanfiction

Summary: For the young prince Natsu, every day was the same. The same mischievous attempts to escape the mundane duties of a royal. But then she came along. Bold and stubborn and a little bit wild, Lucy broke through his boring routine. He'd been ready for a change like her for ages. But he could never be prepared for the changes that would come after. As threats to the kingdom emerge from inside and outside the castle walls, will Natsu be able to trust anyone? Can he trust Lucy? What lengths will Natsu be willing to follow her? And how will his commitments to Magnolia and his family collide?

Chapter 1: Meeting the Prince

"_Maybe its not about the happy ending, maybe its about the story"_

—–—

"Many decades ago, there was a kingdom that lived in peace and harmony, free from any dictatorship or rulers that would take claim over the great land of Fiore. Creatures and humans were free to roam as they pleased. Until the kingdom of Bellum, stepped in. Wanting to take all of Fiore riches and land for its own, the Bellumian King created chaos and despair among the Fioren people. However, there were some who resisted and fought back. The seven great houses of Fiore: Dragneel, RedFox, Eucliffe, Dreyar, Clive, Fullbuster, and a house that no one dares to speak the name of again; fought together to rid that evil from Fiore with dragons at their sides. A great battle was fought in Crocus, and Bellum's army and its King were defeated.

High on victory, a leader of one of the seven houses decided that there should be a King to rule over Fiore and protect its people. And of course, there were those who agreed. And those who did not.

Another battle took place in Crocus that year. A battle between the seven houses... and one of those houses just so happens to be Fiore's current— NATSU!? Are you even listening!?"

Slamming the book she was reading on the desk the boy was sleeping on, she woke him up.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" the boy cried, as he stood up from his chair, alert and ready to fight.

"Natsu—sire," she took a deep breath, " I'm reading to you the history from which your future kingdom was born, not a bedtime story. If you can just list—"

"Of course, Levy, of course. I'm sorry! It's just so boring! Blah blah blah this happen a long time ago blah blah blah this happen a longer time ago blah blah blah who the fuck cares!" he ranted on.

Levy McGarden was a wise girl for her age, wise enough to have the King himself appoint her to educate his son in the lessons of history. She was a beautiful girl with big round hazel eyes, wavy shoulder-length Brandeis blue hair, and fair skin. She was starting to think the only reason she was chosen was because she was the only one that had enough patience for the young prince, but even her patience was running thin.

She sighed, "Your Highness, may we please continue our lesson for today?"

"Nah, I think I'm going to go," Natsu yawned, standing before running out the room.

"Wait! Where are you going?! You can't just leave!"

The big halls of the castle boomed with the sound of his laughter.

"Watch me!"

He sprinted through the guards and servants, dodging the guards that tried to stop him and bumping into then apologizing to the servants. The guards came out of nowhere. Suddenly they were twenty guards surrounding him. They were sure that this time they were going to catch him. Facing the wrath of the king is something they simply had to avoid. Yet again.

"Wow, congratulations guys, you finally caught me after all these years of trying! I got to say, there were times you guys came close— but this one!" Natsu begun clapping his hands. "Bravo, guys, bravo. Give yourselves a round of applause!"

The guards hesitated at first but, eventually lowered their weapons and started to congratulate each other. Patting each other on the backs, hugging. Two guards were crying.

"Look at you guys! I'm so proud. Especially of you, Lahar," Natsu said pointing at the guard with glasses.

Natsu walked up to the guard and patted him on the shoulder. "This guy has been here with me for as long as I can remember! Every other day when I used to sneak out the castle, Lahar used to always be behind me trying to catch me but today you are standing here in front of me!"

Lahar started to wail at the very thought of success.

Natsu pointed to a guard in the back, "And you!" He made his way through the crowd to the guard. "Beavis!"

"My name is Reedus"

"You know I may not remember your name, but I remember your face...from somewhere. Maybe from the countless times I've 'left' my 'studies' and I have to say—" Natsu switched places with the guard, positioning himself on the other side of the wall of guards. He bolted.

"You'll never catch me!"

Natsu jumped out of a window, landing effortlessly on the ground just in time to see his squire, a boy of twelve named Romeo, with their horses and things prepared and ready to go. The guards rushed outside. But by the time they got there, it was too late.

-!-!-!-!-

"Levy," the King addressed her when he saw her in the hallway, his dark brown eyes eyed their surroundings carefully, "Where is Natsu?"

"Your Majesty," she bowed, "Prince Natsu… left. I'm not sure where he was going."

The King stood about 5'11, he had short spiky ruby red hair and a golden crown on his head.

"That boy is going to be the death of me," the King sighed, "All he does is eat, sleep, and fight. If he is to become King one day, he needs to realize being King means more than just knowing how to fight. The kingdom has enough doubts about Natsu as it is. He needs to stop running away from things that will be important in the future. One day, this kingdom will count on him to protect them and if he keeps on playing games, this kingdom will fall."

"So, my Lord," Romeo started as he caught up with Natsu, "where are we headed this time?"

"Hmm... I heard that there was a pretty decent blacksmith in Hargeon. Maybe we could go there to take a look."

"Excellent choice, my lord."

"Just don't call me 'prince' or 'lord'. Those people like to overprice items"

* * *

><p><em>In the town of Hargeon<em>

"90,000 COINS?! For a damn apple?!" The golden haired girl dropped the apple like it was poisoned.

"100,000 coins. Yes." The market seller informed her.

"Did-Did you just up your price for one damn lousy apple?!" She said in disbelief.

"Times are hard."

"Times are hard for everybody, that doesn't mean you should make it harder for me!" the girl whined.

"Lucy!" someone called out to her.

The girl turned towards the voice.

"Ha! That is you. You know I could hear your whining all the way on the other side of the village." The tall muscular guy smirked causing every woman within a twenty mile radius to swoon.

Lucy just glared at him, "I don't whine," she muttered.

He just laughed. "Are you just going to make that ugly face at me all day or are you coming?"

Lucy gripped her bag, making sure not to drop anything the bag may contain. She glared and stuck her tongue out at the market seller and followed the guy.

"You're such a jerk, Laxus."

"So I've been told," Laxus replied.

They walked away from the market place, heading towards the shop where he worked.

"I got what you asked for."

"I got to say Laxus, you may be jerk but, you're a talented one."

They entered the shop. The shop was small yet comfortable enough to move around in. Scraps of metal were piled near the fireplace. Tools hung on the walls and were scattered around the place. The floor covered in black ashes showing the footprints of everyone that ever walked in the shop. Laxus walked over to the corner of the room, knelled down to floor board and pulled it off. He grabbed three weapons and put them to the side, adjusting the floorboard to make it sturdy enough until he can fix it later. He stepped over to Lucy placing the weapons in front of her on the table.

"I hope you know, you can only take one."

Lucy sat down on three blocks of stone near the table as she focused on the three weapons in front of her. She grabbed her bag and pulled out an apple. Wiping the apple with her palm, she tasted a big chunk of the red fruit.

"This is pretty good!" she said, referring to the apple.

"Lucy…" Laxus narrowed his eyes at her.

"Hm?" she hummed into the apple before she bit it. Grabbing another apple out of her bag and cleaning it off again, she tried to hand it to Laxus. "Want one?"

He didn't move to get it. "How many do you have, Lucy?" She looked in her bag.

"Hmm… about twelve more perhaps. Enough for me to make it back home and then some." She motioned Laxus to take the apple. He grabbed the apple and put it to the side.

"You need help Lucy. You need to stop doing that."

She finished the apple and threw the core in the fireplace.

"I wouldn't be doing this if I had help to begin with…" she responded.

"You know you have help in your friends."

"Even though I appreciate their help… the problems in my life are still alive and breathing down my neck with every turn I take."

Laxus remained quiet for a moment and ruffled her hair messing up her fairy-tale braid. She tried to smooth it out.

"Hurry and pick a weapon... You're heading back today, right?" Laxus questioned.

Lucy nodded. "Well, tell me about them!" They turned their attention back to the weapons.

There was a longbow, sword, and steel whip.

Laxus picked up the longbow, "This longbow is made from Yew and Bamboo wood. A strong wood that is hard to break and makes shooting arrow seem more natural. I carved in the wood making designs of a lion, bull, ram, centaur, crab, scorpion, and two fish. The lion represents wisdom. The bull— strength. Ram— fearlessness. Centaur— balance. The crab— trust. The scorpion— control. And the fish are for good luck."

Laxus put down the bow and grabbed the sword. "This beauty is a stainless steel broadsword that had a design of a red dragon as the cross-guard. The grip is like red dragon scales. The fuller is gold, and edge is sharp enough cut fabric just by touching it."

He demonstrate by softly caressing the point of the sword on the curtains on the window. The curtains split. "And it's very lightweight, perfect balance, easy to swing... It's beautiful..."

He holds the sword for a while before he puts it down. He grabbed what was next. "Now this whip is what I like to call a qilinbian. It's a steel chain whip with a 15cm handle made of leather. The lash is made of steel rods decreasing in size. I designed this to be for combat. This will definitely leave scars but you should wear gloves while using this, because if you're inexperienced, it can scrape the skin off the back of your hand..."

Laxus set the weapon down.

"So, which one do you want?"

* * *

><p><em>On the outskirts of Hargeon<em>

"Finally! We're here!" Natsu exclaimed when they made it to Hargeon. He jumped off his horse. Romeo hopped off his horse too.

"Shall I prepare us to venture into the town sir—" Natsu gave him a look "O-oh N-natsu" Natsu pats Romeo's head.

"Stay here Romeo and watch the horses, I'm going to try and find the shop."

"But sir— Natsu"

"People will think we are rich if we bring horses like ours into the village. We can't leave them by themselves because someone might steal them."

"Right…" Romeo agreed.

Natsu walked towards the village.

"I'll be back soon." he yelled

-!-!-!-!-

The blonde girl strolled through the village as she headed outside of town. She wore torn black pants, black boots, and a green cloak. Underneath the cloak on one side of her hip was a chakram, a circular blade that had an "S" shape that ran through the middle. On the other side of her hip was the qilinbian whip.

She passed the border of the village, entering the forest on the way to her home.

"Hey! Let go of me! Leave the horses alone!" Lucy heard someone yell in the distance. She paused, looking in that direction. She weighed her opinions of going to help the person. Then sprinted towards the scene and saw a boy struggling to fight off two men.

"Hey!" The bandits turned towards her. "Leave him alone!"

"Look what we have here! A kid to sell, a woman to fuck, and horses for us. It must be our lucky day, Bora!" The bandit that held Romeo said.

"It must be, Jose." Bora took a step towards Lucy. "Come with us peacefully, and we won't hurt you." He extended his hand to hers.

"Let the boy go and I won't hurt you... Much." Lucy reached inside her cloak, and held onto her chakram, ready to use if necessary.

The bandits just laughed. "A woman? Hurt two strong men like us?" Jose replied.

"I didn't know women were such jokers these days!" Bora laughed.

Lucy glared at them, her hand gripped onto her chakram.

"Did you not hear me woman?! Come with us, now!" Bora took out his sword, advancing towards Lucy.

Lucy took out her chakram and threw it, at full force, at the man's sword. Her other hand pulled out her qilinbian when her chakram cut through the sword, leaving it short and useless. She whipped her qilinbian, at the same time, around his throat. Bora struggled for air. Her eyes turned to the other bandit as she caught the chakram with her free hand.

"Let. The. Boy. Go. Now." She demanded.

"Why you bitch!" Jose pushed Romeo to the nearest tree and charged at Lucy with lightning speed.

She swung her whip, with Bora still attached to it, at Jose, knocking both of them to the ground. Her grip on her whip, firm.

"Hey!" A new voice entered. "What's going on?"

Lucy turned her attention to the new voice. Jose used this opportunity to pull the whip in his direction, causing Lucy to be dragged towards the bandits as the whip scrapped her skin.

"HEY!" The new voice ran to stop the bandit and Romeo got up to help.

"Let her go!" They yelled simultaneously when they jumped on the bandits' backs.

Romeo wrapped his arms around Bora's neck, as he tried to strangle him more. Bora tried to rid himself of the boy's arms around his neck. Romeo only held on to his neck tighter. Bora stood up with Romeo's arms still around his neck like a small cape. He back slammed Romeo into the ground, which caused Romeo to lose his grip. The bandit stood in front on Romeo, as he tried to catch his breathe. The boy kicked the bandit right in the shin and rolled over to stand up. Romeo clenched his fist and punched him in the jaw, knocking him out.

Meanwhile the other guy was fighting Jose. His knuckles connected Jose's face like puzzles pieces. Right hand hit the bandit's eye and nose, left hand drilled inside his stomach. Jose was defenseless. One last hit to the bandit's temple and the guy blacked out.

They tied the bandits to a tree with rope that was on one of the horse's saddles.

"Romeo, are you okay?" the concerned voice asked.

"I'm fine sir. Thank you, for your concern." He bowed. Natsu rolled his eyes.

"Stop with the bowing, it's embarrassing" His eyes glanced over to the girl still on the ground touching the back of her hand, wincing every time she touched it. Natsu walked over to her.

"You're hurt..." Natsu held her hand, tracing over the peeled skin with his fingers. Lucy jerked her hand away from his grasp.

"What do you think you're doing?" she questioned.

"I —um" Natsu didn't know what he was doing himself. He wanted to help but to be honest he didn't know the first thing about caring for someone that's injured. His sister knew more about that stuff than him. Maybe he should ask her about it when he got home...

Lucy waited for an answer.

"I was just trying to help," he replied.

"Do you know how to clean and bandage a wound?"

"No. Not really," he admitted.

She signed. "First rule: Don't touch people without their consent." She grabbed the bottom of his loose fitting white shirt and ripped a piece of the cloth off.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Natsu exclaimed touching the part on his shirt where the fabric was missing.

"What? You said you wanted to help. The cloth on your shirt is more helpful than you right now. Thank you, shirt."

She walked over to the horses, petting them on the head. She spoke to Romeo. "Is there water in that canteen?" she asked nicely.

Natsu narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yes, milady. Would you like some?" He reached for the canteen.

"Yes, please." Grabbing the canteen and pouring the water on her injured skin, she continued talking to Romeo.

Natsu watched from afar as Lucy wrapped her hand with the material of his shirt. He walked towards them.

"Maybe I should take you home," Natsu told her. His black eyes met her warm brown eyes.

"For what?" She raised her eyebrow as she questioned him, yet again.

"You're injured because of me, the least I can do is take you home. There may be more bandits or something."

"If I was injured because of you, don't you think I would be better on my own?"

Natsu opened his mouth to speak but shut it after thinking it over. She continued, "Besides the injury isn't THAT serious. I can manage on my own." She walked away, giving them a short wave.

"I can't allow you to travel on your own. Especially with bandits out there," Natsu told her.

Lucy stopped and did a double-take. "Can't _'allow'_ me?" She strutted back to him. "Let me tell you something mister, I do whatever I want to. I can travel on my own. Defend myself perfectly fine. I don't need no...stranger telling me what I can and can't do!"

"I do whatever I want too," he smirked at her.

"Oh reall—"

Natsu raised his hand and hit the back of her neck to knock her out. He grabbed her before she fell to the ground and threw her over his shoulder. Romeo just stared wide eyed at the scene before him as Natsu dropped Lucy across the top of Natsu's horse.

Natsu walked alongside the horse as it moved with Lucy on its back.

"Now..." The prince started, "Where does she live?"

* * *

><p><em>In the town of Oak<em>

He ran through the manor, searching high and low for its lord until he came upon the dining hall and busted through the door.

"Who dares disrupt my meal with my son!" the Lord of Oak yelled. The Lord stood up from his chair. Two other people sat at the dining table with him, one right next to him, and the other three chairs down.

"My apologies, my lord" he breathed heavily, "but we found it."

A smirk was plastered on his face as he spoke to his son. "Gajeel, have your servants pack your belongings." He walked around the table and headed for the door, stopping to stare at the other person who was sitting at the table with them.

"You get your belongings together and have them ready by dawn."

The boy looked up at him with his droopy eyes. "Oh, are you actually inviting me to tag along with you to some place?"

"Don't get smart, ya freak!" Gajeel angrily warned him.

The Lord held up his hand. "You might be of some use to me…"

"Tsk, and where would I be of some use to you?" the boy with the droopy eyes replied.

The Oak Lord walked away from the boy, motioning for the guard that interrupted their meal to follow him. He stopped at the door, on his way out.

"Magnolia."

* * *

><p><strong>Special thanks to my friend and co-writeradvisor/editor **_ whatthefuckamievenabout __**on Tumblr **_**for helping, threatening, and supporting me through this story (and writing that amazing summary for me)! All updates on the process of this story will be available on my Tumblr, so if you have one, feel free to follow or message me **_ iwishaninjawould _**if you have any questions or leave a review or something**.** Thank you for reading! Until next time!**


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